Jurors spent some three hours deliberating whether Sheeran’s song and Gaye’s classic were similar enough and whether their common elements were protected by copyright law.
Sheeran spent days testifying with guitar in hand, playing demos for the court to prove the 1-3-4-5 chord progression is a basic building block of pop music that cannot be owned.
The 32-year-old said he writes most of his songs in a day, and added that he co-wrote “Thinking Out Loud” with singer-songwriter Amy Wadge, a regular creative collaborator.
A musician hired by the defense told the court that before Gaye had his hit in 1973, several songs had used four-chord sequences.
“These chords are simple building blocks,” Sheeran said on Thursday. “They are a songwriter’s ‘alphabet’, our tool kit.”
“Nobody owns them, or nobody owns the blues the way they’re played.”
Plaintiff Kathryn Townsend Griffin left court and waved by reporters smoking what appeared to be a cigarillo, saying only: “God is good all the time, God is good all the time.”